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On Wednesday, DEA agents raided Full Spectrum Laboratories, a lab in Denver, Colorado, that tests medical marijuana for dispensaries. Bob Winnicki, president of the lab, said the DEA issued a subpoena requesting that it turn over customer and patient records from the past six months. Winnicki said he wasn’t charged with a crime, but agents seized about $10,000 worth of marijuana, some of which was going to be made into capsules for people with multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease.

Winnicki said his operation isn’t a dispensary, but rather a lab that tests marijuana for mold, fungus and pesticides, and tests the effectiveness of different strains of marijuana for treating various ailments for dispensaries and patients. He said he applied for a DEA license back in October to use standards needed to test the marijuana, but didn’t hear from them until Wednesday.

Though the circumstances involved are still unclear, there is no doubt that federal law enforcement agents have bigger fish to fry. While this company was trying to ensure that medical marijuanaâthe use of which has been sanctioned by the Obama administrationâis safe for patients, Mexican drug cartels are operating in 230 cities across the country. If the DEA truly cares about public safety, this is the last place they should be spending their timeâand a single dollar spent on any kind of prosecution of these individuals would be one of the most egregious misuses of government resources imaginable.

California’s Tax Cannabis 2010 campaign announced today that they have submitted nearly 700,000 signatures to qualify their initiative forÂ theÂ November 2010 ballot. The initiative seeks to make personal possession (up to 1 oz.) and cultivation (up to 25 square feet) legal for adults 21Â and up. The proposal also gives cities and counties the option to legalize, tax, and regulate marijuana sales.

Supporters only needed to collect 433,971 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. Submitting such large raw numbers makes the chances very good that this bold measure will be placed before California voters in November.

President Obama has created a YouTube channel where anyone with an Internet connection and an idea can hold an âexclusive interview with the president.â The project is called CitizenTube, and it is very similar to the Open For Questions forum the Obama team unveiled one year ago. And just like last year, marijuana reform questions are by far the most popular.

Here is MPPâs entry:

You can visit the site to vote and help our question be one of the few chosen by Obama for a live YouTube event next week. Click here to help usÂ demonstrateÂ the importance and popularity of this issue.

President Obama has nominated the acting head of the DEA, Michele Leonhart, to take on the post permanently. We have been generally happy with the Justice Department during Obamaâs freshman year, but it would be nice to see a new face at the DEA. Hereâs why.

Early in Leonhartâs career, she was the Special Agent in Charge of the Los Angeles Field Division, where she oversaw President George W. Bushâs brutal tactic of raiding and arresting medical marijuana patients. Most readers will remember the raids on dispensaries that were part of the former presidentâs war on drugs until 2009, but during the early years of the Bush administration, these raids were directed at individual patients, not just distributors. This show of force was a political message meant to undermine state medical marijuana laws. Bush was so smitten with Leonhartâs work fighting innocent cancer patients that he promoted her to deputy director in 2003.

In that role, Leonhart rejected the application of Professor Lyle Craker of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst to research marijuanaâs medical value. Professor Craker was proposing the kind of project considered essential if marijuana is ever to be licensed by the FDA as a prescription medicine, and a DEA administrative law judge ruled in Crakerâs favor. Leonhart, however, ignored the judgeâs ruling and denied the application. Her reasons were transparently phony: an ideological opposition to medical marijuana dressed up in pseudoscientific language. This is precisely the sort of nonsense Obama has pledged to end.

At a news conference in April, Michele Leonhart said that legalizing drugs “would be a failed law enforcement strategy for both the U.S. and Mexico.” Thatâs certainly not change I can believe in.

MPP assistant director of communications Mike Meno talks about marijuana prohibition and the announcement of a bill to allow medical marijuana in the state of Maryland. In this interview, he explains that the current affirmative defense for medical marijuana patients does not go far enough to protect their safety. 01/26/2010

Yesterday, a team of bipartisan Maryland legislators announced the details of two bills that would make medical marijuana legal and accessible for qualified patients in the state.

The billâs main sponsor in the House is Del. Dan Morhaim (D-Baltimore County), who, as an internist and emergency medical physician, has been very effective at explaining why patients and doctors need access to a range of treatment options, including marijuana.

As proposed, the bill would allow patients with a âdebilitating medical conditionâ to obtain marijuana from state-run distribution centers with the recommendation of a doctor with whom they have a long-standing relationship.

After more than two years of deliberation — and just plain foot-dragging — on the issue, the Los Angeles City Council voted 9-3 today to enact an ordinance regulating the operation of medical marijuana facilities in the city. It’s certainly a significant milestone that the second largest city in the nation (eighth in the world) has a law on the books allowing marijuana to be sold through locally regulated storefronts. However, upon digging into the details of the ordinance, it doesn’t seem to be a great boon for the seriously ill and injured Angelenos who rely on medical marijuana.

The ordinance will restrict the number of medical marijuana facilities in the city to 70, but it does grandfather in about 150 collectives which were registered with the city prior to a moratorium which went into effect in 2007. The law will also require all marijuana products to be tested for contaminants and pesticides by an “independent and certified laboratory.” Testing of this nature is a great idea and indeed some in California’s medical marijuana community are working on developing such practices and standards, but finding aÂ lab equipped for this type of testing overnight will be no small chore.

What’s probably the most troublesome detail is that the new ordinance institutes 1,000-foot zones around “sensitive uses” where medical marijuana collectives cannot operate legally. These include schools, public parks, libraries, and even churches. This huge 1,000-foot radius and another requirement that facilities may not be located adjacent to residential zones — which is not required of alcohol vendors — will force nearly all to move.

Meanwhile, patients looking for a safe and open place to acquire their medicine in Los Angeles may just be finding life that much more difficult.

Yet another myth about marijuana takes a beating thanks to some splendid research out of Scandinavia. Although itâs no surprise to MPPâs fans, marijuana use has no link to suicide. A thorough study of Swedish military men confirms that those who use marijuana are no more likely to take their own lives than those who donât. Prohibitionists often grab results like these and squeal âthe sample is too small to mean much,â but this research focused on more than 50,000 people. If you canât get marijuana to link to suicide in 50,000 people, you canât get marijuana to link to suicide.

Prohibitionists also often shout âWell, you didnât follow them up long enough. They would have killed themselves eventually.â This study followed the participants for 33 years. If you canât link marijuana to suicide after 33 years, you canât link marijuana to suicide. Â If thereâs no smoke, thereâs no fire. This study also showed markedly smaller links between marijuana and depression than folks thought.

Clearly, the biggest bummer about marijuana doesnât stem from its use; itâs from arrests. At 800,000Â per year, our current rate, Â weâd have 26,400,000 more arrests for the next 33-year follow-up. Letâs not let that happen. Itâs just too depressing.

Dr. Mitch Earleywine is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University at Albany, State University of New York, where he teaches drugs and human behavior, substance abuse treatment and clinical research methods. He is the author of more than 100 publications on drug use and abuse, including âUnderstanding Marijuanaâ and âThe Parentsâ Guide to Marijuana.” He is the only person to publish with both Oxford University and High Times.

MPP Director of Communications Kurt A. Gardinier appears on Broadband Network 3 to discuss marijuana prohibition and the impending law allowing Washington DC residents to use medical marijuana for serious conditions. Also featured is Wayne Turner, one of the persons responsible for the original ballot initiative to allow medical marijuana in the District of Columbia. 01/20/2010

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The opinions expressed by our viewers and posters do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Marijuana Policy Project. These views are those of their individual authors alone. MPP does not condone or support the illegal use of marijuana. We do encourage open and frank discussion, but if a comment has been posted that is in some way significantly inappropriate, please email us at [email protected] to report it. Thank you, and we're looking forward to what you think!

"The plain and simple truth is that alcohol fuels violent behavior and marijuana does not ... alcohol contributes to literally millions of acts of violence in the United States each year. It is a major contributing factor to crimes like domestic violence, sexual assault, and homicide. Marijuana use, on the other hand, is absent in that regard from both crime reports and the scientific literature. There is simply no causal link to be found."
Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper, from the foreword to Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink?, 2009